The Clockmaker’s Bride

He built her from time itself — a woman made of ticking veins and brass bones. Every heartbeat a mechanism, every sigh a calculation. For years, they danced in perfect rhythm, until her gears began to slow. He replaced her parts with gold, then silver, then his own heart.

When he finally stopped, she kept ticking. For centuries, she wound her gears, waiting for him to wake, never realizing that her eternity was the price of his. Some say she still walks the streets at midnight, listening for his heartbeat among the clocks of the city.

If you ever hear two clocks beating out of sync, it’s her — searching for him still.